War Possession - Through The Ages

Bands have been making so much death metal in their putrid cavern walls and hellish kilns that it's literally impossible to escape from one's clutches, and as it has happened innumerable times, I've once again found myself writing about and unknown retro death metal act the cadaverous contortions their release projects. Once again Hellthrasher Productions bring desolate obscurities to the surface and expose their bitter display of vile bowel-butchery in the possible goriest way. War Possession, like their label mates Resurgence, are a band from Greece that really don't pen material that's gonna spoil the contents of your brain in one ludicrous, ruinous rampage. I'm not gonna go for an in-depth description of the band's obtuse delivery, even though I can safely say it packs one ugly, macabre punch, but if you know what Demigod, Convulse, Bolt Thrower and USDM sounds like, you won't have much trouble imagining the skull-chaffing index of this brief EP.

''Through The Ages'', ranging at some twenty-one minutes, takes relatively different subjects, usually warlike topics, into the music, as you'll see in the cover, which is probably the biggest connection it has to any Bolt Thrower album. The lyrical content aside, War Possession have frothing formula at their hands which they use most efficiently; a putrid, sodden guitar tone with chunky gallops flowing like a torrential stream of gore and blood, brusque tempo changes, and wretched, bile-covered death/doom arsenal, as if some posthumous being starts to gobble up your legs whilst crude utters escape its mouth - it's a horrendous experience while it lasts, but even so, you'll fail to be really revitalized by this emission of mangled flesh. There are moments like the immediate mid-paced groove on ''The Shadow Of The Ancient Gods'' or semi-technical bombast on ''World War Domination'' that got me thinking, and I sank further down with the ghastly, torrid growls the vocalist can manifest, but as far as great sequences goes, those are the only few you'll be able to think, even when baffled by the primitive brute force this hulk can conjure.

Even the poignant melodies evoke some misery in me, but the overall punishment ''Through The Ages'' serves is only gonna do damage. Yes, some pretty immense, rib-splitting collateral damage, yes, but there're definitely much more intelligent death metal acts out there who absolutely make you shed bitter tears as pain swerves and stirs up in your ear than comes out in liquid sustenance for the creator of torture to feed on; and War Possession are not one of those bands. Like I said, I'm still content with what I heard, but if they're not gonna morph into a sensation of chaotic mesmerizing darkness, like violent reflection of their spine-chilling outro ''Deathmarch'', they might as well become experts in their own art, manifesting what has already been manifested with putrid bile and gore. They're definitely gonna need some more arms if they're going to expand their retinue in short notice.

Highlights:
Medieval Bloodlust
World War Domination

Rating: 78%